Why Low Congress Approval Rating Isn't Good News For GOP By MARC McDONALD http://www.beggarscanbechoosers.com/2007/07/why-low-congress-approval... Lately, the Republicans have been gloating over the fact that the Democratically led Congress has a low approval rating.
But if you stop and think about it, the GOP really has little reason to celebrate. First of all, as Gallup has pointed out, Congress' approval ratings have been consistently low for decades---with only two exceptions: the Watergate era and in 1986 (when Congress' approval rating was at 40 percent). Indeed, the mainstream media has been irresponsible in its lack of context for failing to mention this fact in reporting on Congress' recent low approval numbers. The fact is, pollsters have long noted that the American public has a dim view of Congress as a whole (but they often have a much higher opinion of their own local lawmakers). It's important to remember the reason that Congress has a low approval rating these days. Is it because the public disapproves of the lawmakers' efforts in the Congress to raise minimum wage and other Democratic legislative initiatives? Nope, that's not the reason. In fact, polls have consistently shown that the public supports raising the minimum wage. In fact, as Michael Moore pointed out in his book, Dude, Where's My Country? the majority of the American public agrees with the Democrats on most of the top domestic issues of our time. These range from keeping abortion legal to promoting civil rights to protecting the environment to stronger controls on firearms. Indeed, polls consistently show that a majority of the American public is further to the left than most Democratic politicians on many issues, such as health care. For example, 80 percent of Americans believe that health insurance should be provided equally to everyone in the nation. The bottom line is that, if the Republicans take a good, hard look at the reason why Americans are fed up with this Congress, it's actually bad news for the GOP, not the Democrats. The reality is, Americans are sick and tired of the war in Iraq--and they're fed up with the stumbling efforts in Congress to bring an end to this fiasco. And try as they may to distance themselves from George W. Bush, the Republicans are going to have a difficult time distancing themselves from the Iraq War. After all, the overwhelming majority of the remaining Iraq War supporters in this country are Republicans On Dec 28, 8:30 am, Ohio mark <[email protected]> wrote: > and yet he has higher ratings than the dem led congress. and the only > ones who hate the president would be the hate filled libs of the > world. you know the ones. the ones who hate freedom. the ones who > hate democracy. the socialists, the communists the liberals. funny > how the people he helped set free from repression seem to like him. > yep, it appears it is only the hate filled libs who have a problem. > but then the hate filled libs are the problem. > > On Dec 28, 7:51 am, "mike [never forget] 532" > > > > <[email protected]> wrote: > > The 'Bush Legacy Project' Is > > Failinghttp://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/115525/ > > The scope of the public's disdain for Bush is most impressive. > > Seventy- five percent of those questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research > > Corp. survey released Friday said they're glad Bush is going; 23 > > percent indicated they'll miss him. [...] > > > CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider added, "As President Bush > > prepares to leave office, the American public has a parting thought: > > Good riddance. At least that's the way three-quarters feel." > > > That "Bush Legacy Project," which has been working lately on improving > > the president's public standing, doesn't seem to be connecting. > > > Now, every obviously knows that Bush is extremely unpopular, and has > > been for quite some time, but it's helpful to pause once in a while to > > appreciate just how despised this president is. We're witnessing > > something truly historical here. > > > Consider, for example, the question of post-presidential > > contributions. Eight years ago, 55% of Americans wanted to see Bill > > Clinton remain active in public life. For Bush, the number is 33%. The > > country, in other words, not only wants Bush to go away, but we don't > > want to see him popping up from time to time, either. > > > Eric Kleefeld went through some of the internals and found widespread > > distaste for Bush on every level. Americans don't like him, don't > > trust him, don't think he cares about them, and don't admire him. The > > public doesn't think Bush united the country, doesn't think he brought > > about the change we needed, and believes he failed to manage the > > government effectively. > > > The scope of the public's disdain for Bush is most impressive.- Hide quoted > > text - > > - Show quoted text - --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. 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